


I dare you to fall in love

by anothersilentwriter



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: #I mean this has zero angst which is rare for me, #I mean tooth rotting fluff, #Mutual pining, #fluff, #modernAU, #one sided pining, #they both want eachother to be happy, #they talk, (really they both are though, F/M, One-Sided Attraction, Wait for it, Zuko is an Awkward Turtleduck, but really, it becomes mutual pining, one idiot in love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-21
Updated: 2021-02-21
Packaged: 2021-03-17 22:49:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,600
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29599935
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anothersilentwriter/pseuds/anothersilentwriter
Summary: “I dare you to fall in love.”“What?”In which Katara asks Zuko to fall in love and he has to tell her that he already is.
Relationships: Katara/Zuko (Avatar)
Comments: 10
Kudos: 107





	I dare you to fall in love

“I dare you to fall in love.” 

The question comes out of nowhere. They’ve been friends for maybe a few months; a delicate balance between sarcastic teasing, holding tempers and learning to forgive without forgetting. Rivals for longer; yelling, shouting, screaming words that meant so much but spoken at the wrong time, in the wrong context, without ever conveying what they meant. And now- he isn’t sure what they are or maybe what he wishes they would be. 

“What?” 

“I said,” She rolls over onto her stomach, her hair falls around her face in a frizzy waterfall of brown curls. She clears her throat in that matter-of-fact way that used to send flames of some twisted emotion into the pit of his stomach, he now labels those flames were butterflies, or maybe they always were. “I dare you to fall in love.” 

He, the local idiot, asks her again “What?” 

“You know- “ 

_ No, I do not know. _

“How you always deny you have no feelings-“ He cuts her off there. 

“I do not!” 

“Oh yeah?” Katara quirks her brow, “Did you or did you not cry when the turtle duck cried in the movie last night?” 

“I did not cry. I’m allergic to the salt and vinegar chips Sokka was eating. They made my eyes water.” 

“The chips you bought?” 

“For him. The chips I bought  _ for him _ .” 

“Even though turtle-ducks are your favorite animal?” 

“Just because they are my favorite animal doesn’t mean I’ll cry when they die in a stupid movie.” He’s sitting up straighter now and crossing his arms. Desperately clinging on to what is left of masculinity, although Toph already stole most of it. (She may be blind, and she may be tiny, but she can take down anybody in arm wrestling). “And what does that movie have to do with me falling in love?” 

She rolls her eyes like the answer is obvious. “You need to open up more.” 

“I do not.” 

“Yes, you do. You do.” 

“Why?” He asks, “I open up to you, was the shared mother trauma, not enough?” 

She rolls her eyes, “The shared mother trauma was a start.” 

“I’m sensing a but.” He narrows his eyes at her. “What are you trying to say.” 

“I’m trying to say you need to fall in love, you need to open up your heart, find yourself a person who you feel comfortable with, and just learn that emotions are okay. They aren’t going to stab you all the time.” 

He takes a few minutes to process what she said. “So you admit they can stab you.” 

“I-“ She sits up on her knees, “That wasn’t the point of what I just said. Zuko for Tui and La’s sake did you not hear any other part of the sentence?” 

“I did. But you admit they can stab you.” He likes the way her brows furrow when she’s annoyed, and how serious she looks when she bites her cheek. 

“Not all the time.” 

_ “But they can _ .” 

“Not all the time.”

_ “But they-“  _

Zuko may like how she looks annoyed, but he does not like how accurate her pillow throws are, and he certainly does not like how he is now falling onto the fluffy white carpet that lines her room. And he, really, really does not like how Katara’s other four pillows throw at his head, back, stomach, and head again feels.  _ Damn her obsession with throw pillows. _ He wants to hate it, he wishes he could, but he can’t hate anything about Katara. 

He can’t hate the way how her room is dedicated towards little nick nacks, postcards, books, pens, papers, quotes, and yes throw pillows that can be used as a weapon. 

He can’t hate the way she spends hours studying law textbooks because she wants to be a human rights lawyer, even if that same passion for arguing is used against him most of the time. 

He can’t hate the way she will stay up until 4 am listening to music even though it keeps him up at night in his apartment next door. 

He can’t hate those stewed sea prunes she adores so much even though just looking at them makes him want to vomit.

He can’t hate how she can talk for hours, even if he does not know anything about the subject. 

He just can’t hate her. 

And he tried.

He hates himself because his past self-thought that life without her was actually a life worth pursuing. How wrong he was. He knows better now, even if something made of feathers may or may not have left bruises.  _ Why do throwpillows have to hurt this much? _

He manages to see the last pillow and catch it. “Are you done?” He yells, “Why am I being attacked?” 

“Why aren’t you listening to me?” She yells back.

“I am. But you aren’t making sense. Why would you want me to fall in love?” 

“Because it is good for you.” She says it so purely, so innocently, so believably. “I want you to be happy. And don’t pull that I’m never happy bullshit.” 

“Why?” 

“Because I care about you, silly.” She laughs, and she gets off the bed to pick up two of her pillows and throwing those back onto her mattress, the other two she arranges on the ground as a makeshift seat. She reaches out for his hand, waiting for him to give it to her. He does. Her fingers grip his hand, “My friend.” 

He’s touched. She cares about him. She’s his friend. 

He’s touched.

But it stings just a little.

“You’re my friend too.” He blurts out. “I care about you too, ya know, because yeah.”

He’s an idiot. 

A stupid. Giant. Idiot. 

“See?” And she smiles, “That’s what friends do. And I think it would be beneficial for you to fall in love.” 

He decides he’s done enough talking and opts to raise his good brow at her instead. She understands the message, she always does. “I mean, it's weird, but I just think it would help you. Falling in love means opening up right? Being comfortable with them, wanting to spend time with them, talking, laughing, arguing because nothing is perfect. But when you’re in a relationship, and you’re in love, well shouldn’t you want to be better? It sounds dumb, I know it is, and you probably aren’t even listening to me. It isn’t those romance movies where like they are in love and they hate each other, or it's toxic and whatever, it's pure love, pure genuine love. And I’m not saying being in a relationship for the sake of being in a relationship, but one day. One day I want you to fall in love and be happy, and maybe even begin to love yourself. Ya know? Or maybe you don’t know, but whatever it is I want you to find it.” 

He again is stuck processing the words. 

One second. 

Two.

Three.

Four. 

Five.

Seven.

Eleven. 

Maybe fifteen seconds pass before his stupid mouth betrays him again- “And who would you want me to fall in love with?” 

It seems she hasn’t gotten that far yet in her thinking. 

She looks away, and the warmth in his hand is no longer there.

Time seems to slow again and the process repeats in the opposite. 

One second.

Two.

Three.

Five.

Seven.

Ten.

Eleve-

“Mai?” 

The laughter escapes his mouth before he even has a chance to hide it. He’s falling to the ground, not from pillows this time, clutching his stomach at the very thought of him now falling in love with Mai. If things were completely different in another life, maybe he could see a possibility, but in most, he didn’t. 

She tilts her head, cheeks red and slightly blushed. Maybe she’s a little embarrassed. “What's wrong with Mai?” 

“Nothings wrong with her, but she’s not right for me.” 

“She seems nice.” 

He shoots her a look, and she puts her hands up. “It sounded wrong when I said it too.” 

“We are good friends, we’ve been good friends. But we don’t work well together  _ like that.  _ Besides she’s in love with Ty Lee.” 

“Really?” Zuko nods his head to confirm his question. “They are cute together.”

“Yeah. Me and Mai would end like you and Jet.” 

He gets a death glare, from him. “Like you didn’t have a crush on Jet either.”

Sometimes he forgets he told her this precious bit of information. “But at least, I didn’t date him.” 

She can’t argue with him there so she moves on, biting her corner lip in thought. “What about Jin? She was nice. You could contact her again.” 

“That was all Uncle.” 

“Uncle has good taste.” 

“In tea, not romantic partners.” 

“I doubt that’s true.” 

She’s right. Uncle does have good taste in everything but room décor. If he ignores the bejeweled monkey monstrosity that he bought at the flea market, Uncle's decisions in almost everything have been pretty okay. His tea, world-famous. His advice, taken by all who know him and in the past few years Zuko. His ideas of who his nephew’s’ perfect partner is…well it isn’t that the advice is wrong but Zuko has a knack of messing pretty much everything up. 

As proved by the fact that Zuko is sitting in front of Katara, the one who uncle says s _ hould be the one _ , who is currently listing almost every person Zuko has had the slightest attraction to. Except for the one sitting in front of him. 

And so, he listens to her prattle on and keeps denying every name that she keeps saying. His heart is beating so fast and he knows that if it weren’t for Katara’s voice he would have died. 

After fifteen minutes she gives up. “Fine.” She admits, finally tiring of this back and forth. “I guess you haven’t met them yet.” 

And because he’s an idiot.

A giant idiot. 

He opens his stupid mouth. 

_ “No.”  _

Her eyes are holding what is almost fury, maybe not fury, excitement, annoyance? Normally he can read her expressions like he can read his favorite book, but right now with the last rays of sunlight leaving and the window now revealing the moon he cannot seem to read her. He does not know what they are. But they come to life again. Her lip pursing in a thin line. “What do you mean no?” 

“Actually, never mind.” 

But it's too late. 

He slipped up.

She knows he is hiding something.

She knows it, and he knows she knows, and she knows that he knows she knows, and he-  _ even his thoughts are scrambling now _ . 

“Zuko.” Her voice is low, not a whisper, but not really talking either. 

He matches her tone, maybe if he pisses her off, she’ll forget about this. “Katara.”

She has that glow in her eyes, “Who Zuko?” 

He doesn’t want to say it. 

He doesn’t want to say it. 

He does not want to say it. 

“I’m sorry,” He’s apologizing, “But you can’t let me dare you into falling in love.” 

Wait-

That’s not right.

He corrects himself, “I mean I can’t let  _ you _ dare  _ me _ into falling in love.” 

She’s silent, eyeing him carefully, arms crossed, fingers gently tapping on her elbow, but she’s not angry. There is a sarcastic smirk on her face, and her voice is filled with that know it all attitude “Why not?” 

He’s an idiot. 

A giant and stupid idiot. 

A giant and stupid idiot.

Why oh why, could he have not kept his mouth shut, why did he have to say anything? Why Zuko?

_ Why? _

_ Why? _

_ Why? _

She’s waiting.

She doesn’t like to wait.

One second. 

Two.

Three.

Four. 

Five.

The wait was that six?

She’s opening her mouth-

_ “Because I’m in love with you.”  _ It slips out so easily, like it has been there all along, it has though. “I’m in love with you Katara so you can’t dare me to fall in love because I already am.” 

This is where he messes up. This is where he messes up and loses her. Everything always goes wrong when he admits the truth, or when he is honest with the world. He knows that he can’t do this, he can’t handle it. 

Why?

Why?

Why? 

He was good at silently pining, great at it really. Arguably too good at it- good to the point where his crush has him listing potential dates for him. You know what he isn’t good at? Keeping. His. Damn. Mouth. Shut.

She’s silent for too long. 

“I’m sorry, Katara.” He allows the apology to slip out because it isn’t like he can make any more mistakes.  _ Right??  _ Agni help him. “I just- I just realized I was in love with you and I know that you don’t think of me in that way. And I want you to be happy- I really want you to be happy.” 

“Zuko- “ 

She tries to stop him, but he is rambling too fast. “And I know we have not been friends for that long, like we hated each other and wanted to rip each other’s throats out just last year, so I guess it seems like I haven’t wanted you to be happy for that long. But I do! I want you to be happy, and smile, and all that sappy stuff and I’m making a fool of myself.”

And then she’s laughing.

She’s laughing he thinks, that means he messed up. 

But laughing means happy, and happy means she doesn’t hate Zuko? 

Or…

She’s smiling, failing to hold in giggles. “Zuko, please stop thinking for five seconds it looks like your brain is about to explode.” 

He does what she says.

“I like you too, Zuko.” 

And if his brain was not exploding before, his entire chakras are exploding now.

“You what?” 

“I said,” She begins again, “I said I like you too.” 

“I-“ He’s completely and utterly flabbergasted. “I didn’t expect that.” 

She’s laughing again, Agni he loves her laugh. “I didn’t expect it either.” 

“Then why?” 

“Why what?” 

“Why ask me to fall in love, if you liked me too?” 

“Because I thought you didn’t like me. I wasn’t exactly subtle about the flirting.”  _ The what now? Flirting? _ _ What flirting? _ She’s turning away from him and even in the darkness, he can see her cheeks turning red. “I just asked you because I thought it would be good for you, and Uncle said something along the lines of how falling in love helps people and I guess it stuck with me. But I wanted you to be happy anyways. 

“I thought you didn’t like me, so I was going to let you be happy.” 

They look at each other awkwardly for a few seconds, until Katara speaks up. “We are idiots.”

He nods his head in agreement. “Yup. Two. Idiots.” 

She nods her head too. 

“So, what now?” He scratches the back of his head. This was not how he imagined confessing his love to her, and his daydream scenarios did not prepare him for this at all. 

She has her thinking look on her face, and then she gives him a shy smile. “Can I kiss you?” 

Zuko is an idiot. He is an idiot in love. He is also an idiot in love who can’t keep his mouth shut. Lucky for him the girl he is in love with was also a fellow idiot (she admitted to being one just this once). But right now, with the girl he loves in his arms, he is a very happy idiot. 

**Author's Note:**

> This was different from my normal angsty writing but you know what, I actually wrote it (and I enjoyed it too). The two idiots in love Zutara is something I live for and I hope you all enjoyed the fic!!!


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